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Alain Haché Scientist

Alain Haché (born 14 December 1970, in Tracadie, New Brunswick) is an experimental physicist, a professor at the University of Moncton, Canada. From 2003 to 2013 he held the Canada Research Chair in Photonics. He is also the author of The Physics of Hockey, a popular science book on ice hockey.In 2002, he and undergraduate student Louis Poirier transmitted faster-than-light electrical pulses through a 120-metre long "photonic crystal" made of coaxial cables of alternating characteristic impedance (12 pairs of 50 Ω and 75 Ω cables). The experiment showed that the pulse envelope was recreated at the end of the cables at a speed of >3 c. Since this speed represents the group velocity but not the signal velocity, no energy or information was actually traveling faster than light.